Hey there friend :)
Yes, that childish message has gone away now, hopefully to a much better place :P
see, i'm actually so grown up i feel tired all the time!
Have fun, look around, add me to your bookmarks, and visit once every blue moon, who knows? Maybe a new post will be up!
and for those already following me since wayyy back in the dark ages, i apologise profusely for the chronic lack of posting.. i miss you all..

i dont know where to begin probably because i dont remember where i left off even!Its been a hectic year here in Sweden, havent actually COMPLETED a year but will do in forty days. still learning the language, still looking for a job :)

Swedish is a very strange language, it is simple, much more so than English, however that simplicity is in itself constricting, add to that the myriad influences from German and English itself, and all the grammatic exceptions you want, and the language becomes even more challenging.

so far i've learned enough to be able to write highschool-level essays, not THAT big of a job since mainly I'm still mentally translating from English-to-Swedish, and using the wonderful Google Translate function..Jobs: the job market here is hard, especially now under the financial crisis, Swedes are getting laid off, approximately 100'000 Swede have applied for government help in subsidized income, this month alone. about 10'000+ are getting laid off, GM is selling SAAB, Volvo is under threat, in short, the picture is not that sunny, HELL; it wasnt sunny to begin with!But, i'm still hanging on :) doing the odd job here and there..

One thing i cannot stress enough is how OPEN these people are.. till now i did not face a single problem from a swedish person, except some neo-nazi trash who kept defacing the local bus stop and writing stuff like "Foreigners go home" and drawing lopsided swastikas and shit like that, oh well, there's one of those everywhere.even the Iraqis i met here are nice, granted you dont ever, EVER debate religion or politics or your race (I'm HUMAN, dunno about them) which i dont anyway.

One of the most surprising things here is how outspoken Iraqi Christians are, guess its due to being released from being a minority, and i dont mean that in a bad way :)however, even so, being arabs they still get (and give) trouble from non-arabic non-muslim Iraqis, for example the constant problems in Södertälje between Christian Arabs and Assyrians and God only knows who else.

Who else is causing grief to others?Sunni and Shi'a? sure.Arabs and Kurds? sure.Pro- and Anti-Saddamites? Suuuuure. (more than a year after the guy danced the hemp fandago, and he is still worshipped. sigh)the other parts of the problem are the Somalis and Turks in Rinkeby. never-ending problems, some idiots there even went as far as beating up policemen and burning a police station.

Saddest part? you find an Iraqi BOASTING how his friends in Rinkeby beat the shit out of the police.

Its fucking stupid. and retarded. people coming to a new country dragging their problems with them.

biggest part of the problem as i see it is the concentration of ethnic minorities in certain areas, much like the pakistani areas of London, or the Algerian/Moroccan neighborhoods in Paris.

The government here started thinking outloud about this problem only this year, but as i see it there is no real way of solving it. there IS a continuing housing shortage in Stockholm, so they cant spread them around, and even if they did, a new immigrant is free to choose where he lives, if he finds a place, add on top the whole illegal third-hand subletting of appartments to dozens of still-green immigrants. some still live there years after.I've lived in one of those the first couple of weeks of my time here till i managed to find an apartment. a two-room apartment housing 8 guys. some with families living in other places.

School: now that's been a good time :) been a while since i last studied seriously, sometimes i still find it a bit hard, but i try to keep my focus :)

Leisure: hmm. well, me myself its enough to go walk around Stockholm :) I've been to a couple of parties as well, Arabs and Swedes.the weather fits me to a tee. almost always freezing my ass off, which i like! even in the hottest day of Summer it didnt peak much above 30. in winter its 3 o'clock and its already dark! i LOVE IT! cant say enough good things about it! (most Iraqi, having a disposition towards warmer climate, would like no less than to strangle me with my own intestines for saying this about the weather. So many are as depressed as hammered shit)oh and i started training again, it costs an arm and a leg, but it is worth it! next week is the end-course grading exam, so i should probably prepare for it, i guess.Music, Movies, and Books: Dark, Dark, and Dark! One day something just clicked inside my head and i started listening to Slayer again, and i have no regrets!Movies: many, not ALL are dark, i LOVED "Enchanted" (yeah, i did) and liked "Hellboy 2" much more than the overhyped "Dark Knight".i still refuse to take Batman seriously before he starts using guns.martial arts my ASS, i am a martial artist. and i say guns win, EVERY TIME.hmm.. "Wall-E" was amazing. one of the best animated films i will ever see :) Toy Story material!

i have the new Rambo somewhere here but never did get the urge to complete it. entertaining, if your idea of entertainment is a mulleted, greasy 60year-old grunting everytime he shot someone half his size.

I hate Seth Rogan, him and that other idiot Dane Cook. i refuse to watch anything by them.

Aaaaaaaandd finally am looking forward to the stupidity of the new Punisher movie.

books: read through all 36 Pratchett books, and that was in my first 6 months. re-reading some of them again.

The Road by Cormic McCarthy is an amazing book. really pulled me in.

The Rising by Brian Keene: hmm. would have affected me much more if i didnt read for Garth Ennis much. good zombie romp with a solid twist. Do not read if you think God and Zombies dont mix.

oh and the absolute first-class winner of them all is World War Z by Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks, genius (Hitler on Ice! cracks me up everytime i see it)this book is really something else. recommended to me by a friend, i thought i would read a bit just to be polite, but damn if this book was not one of my best reads in the last 10 years, and i read a LOT.

hmm.. so what else? I've been typing as i was thinkning up stuff to say, so sorry if it seems unstructured, it is.

sigh. i really wish i had more time. why isn't there 10 days in a week and 30 hours in a day?

sorry for leaving you all this time. i'll try to write something as i get the time :)

WARNING: techie post. just something to refer to in future discussions.

Codename Intrepid Ibex is here :)

the second Ubuntu annual release, as usual.

this one is still in beta, but i already like it!

here are a few things i noticed:

better hardware recognition, finally managed to properly drive my Network Activity LED, all i could do previously is have it ON or OFF, now its actually flashing when there is network activity.

better SCIM functionality (SCIM: Smart Common Input Method, which was designed to ease the non-unicode users -arabs, chinese- into the mainly-unicode Internet environment, but instead was a righteous pain in the ass to configure and even get to run right)

better Bluetooth modules. some random bug in Hardy (8.04) made it impossible to send files TO the pc from a mobile device.

the 2.27 kernel is more... relaxed? than the old 2.24. doesnt panic anymore when i remove my wireless module (modprobe -r iwl3945) to begin the -now routine- task of penetration-testing the security of wifi network around me.. ahem. yeah. i inject. so what of it?

i like the quicksearch in Synaptic package manager! finally they learned from Add/Remove.

i like the improved desktop environment, tho i do feel it still needs work. this is evolution not revolution.

all in all it feels faster.

Ubuntu theme still is butt-ugly, good to see they havent changed that!

This is the general-meaning of the name to help make laymen, ordinary people, and non-scientists understand the naming-convention of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in simple language and to understand the aims of the LHC itself.

Large

LHC is quite large, comprising of a circular-tunnel, with multiple loops, stretching for 27 kilometre under the earth between France and Switzerland.

Hadron

This refers to one of the types of particles that make up an atom. These miniature quantas of energy will be propelled by large magnets around the tunnel circuit at the speed of light (approximately) in LHC.

Collider

Collision is oppositely-beaming hadrons will collide or meet, at the same high-speed i.e. speed of light. The resulting explosion will create 105 or 100,000 times more heat than the sun in an area a billion or 109 times smaller than a dust-particle.

so basically this is "the most powerful physics experiment ever built, the Large Hadron Collider will re-create the conditions just after the Big Bang in an attempt to answer fundamental questions of science and the universe itself."

Ahaha.

Nope, i DO hope they got the math part right and there will be no unplanned disruptions, and of course i wake up september 11th with the same general shape i have grown to love :)

i actually like this, this is what science is about, building huge-ass stuff which threatens to blow up the world!

no seriously, perhaps this will shed some more light on the universe, its creation, the how, why, when, where, and maybe, just maybe, whom!

Metallica: the meanest, biggest, most self-destructive band in metal, churn out their latest effort:

i had been expecting this opportunity for months now just so i can sneer at them and confirm what everyone already knows: Metallica sucks ass. I was even prepared to listen to the horrid St.Anger again just to compare how shitty this new would be:

then they go and disappoint me.

THIS ALBUM IS F***ING GREAT.

once my musical taste kinda settled down a few years back, i started thinking of Metallica as a band that stopped making music after 1991, what with Black Album, Load, Reload, etc etc, being all Lyrical happy-horse-shit with a good measure of hillbilly in it..

then came St.Anger, i dont want to talk about it,

Then this. was it worth waiting for? HELL YEAH!

this is the most devlishly-technical album Metallica has ever put out. Every member of the band simply outperforms himself (except of course for Lars Ulrich whom always has no technique, relying instead on hitting the snares as hard as he can)

Kirk Hammet: Satriani? Petrucci? SCREW THEM! This boy is playing on a level akin to Kerry King and Dimebag! (I mean, pentatonic scales, playing fast yeah yeah, gimme one Dimebag riff and i would love you forever)

so anyway, the album consists of 10 tracks, racking a well-recieved 1:15 hours, the track listing is as follows:

That Was Just Your LifeIMPRESSIVE! This song will single-handedly make you believe in Metallica once again, heavy, technical, bleeding fast, though at just over 7 minutes i felt it kinda dragged on a bit in the end.4½/5

The End Of The Line

The effort continues, heavy as shit and with more essence! This is the modern day "Four Horsemen" off of Metallica's debut album.. kinda reminds me of Motörhead. dunno why! Ah, halfway through it shows the melodic influences Metallica picked up in the 90's.. still a good song!4/5

Broken, Beat & Scarred

One of my two favorite songs on this album. a song perfect for moshing. there is some speedpicking here you won't believe is coming from Hetfield! Kirk Hammet IS Dimebag in this song. if Metallica make more songs like this one, they would rule all, bar none.4½/5

The Day That Never Comes

Bleurgh! This album's No Leaf Clover. i hate Metallica when they start philosophizing. GIMME MORE CARNAGE! still a song good enough to be released as the first single of this album..3½/5

All Nightmare Long

My #1 favorite song on this album! has its roots in Black Album, then at 0:36 it dropkicks you while you are busy thinking "Ah.. Enter Sandman", I dont know what they were on when they wrote this one, i want some of it! This is mosher heaven! Ride The Lightning, Hit The Lights, a LITTLE Slayer influence there as well.. i dont know what else it brings to mind.. Kirk Hammet pulls off some weird shit i never knew he was capable of, Lars shines in this one, Bass? you might wonder why i didnt mention the bass parts? well, I am saving it for last! wait!oh and like ALL Metallica lyrics, they suck beyond belief! that is why nothing here gets perfect score.4½/5

Cyanide

Heh. you all know this one, its been online for over two months now.. Still, give it a twirl.. Bass shows here shoving and headbutting its way to the front, this song is a good representation of Heavy Metal for beginners, not very heavy, catchy, VERY so! has so many switches and changes in tempo (i counted 22) Kirk here is Kirk Hammet of "For Whom The Bell Tolls". Good effort. thank you 'Tallica!4/5

The Unforgiven III

Say What??? Come on! second weakest song on the album, maybe its just cuz i dont like Metallica when they go slow.. however, this is a continuation of the Unforgiven songs, on its own its weak, if you hear them in sequence as a friend told me to, you'll like it more. Begins with piano and clean guitars then becomes heavier as the song goes. James Hetfield's voice is aging, and it shows. his performance is still clean, never dropping or shorting out, but..anyway, for me it sounds like Linkin Park doing an impression of The Unforgiven I AND II together.3½/5

The Judas Kiss

Wow. Ride the Lightning re-imagined. forget the stupid, STOOPID lyrics, just listen. this is what happens when Metallica pick Rick Rubin, Slayer's producer, to make them a new album. i love this. i just decided to bump it up one half-star. 6:00 onwards made me want to go change my pants. I.LOVE.IT. and so should you!4½/5

Suicide & Redemption

9 minutes long. rumbling basslines. This generation's "Orion". If Metallica have written a heavier song than this i want to know about it. Channels everyone from Hendrix to Satriani to Michael Schenker to God knows whom else!4½/5

My Apocalypse

shortest song on the album, five minutes of pure thrash. Metallica end the album as they begun it, grabbing you by the neck and hitting you repeatedly over the head with the heaviest shit you can imagine and not letting go till their fingers start bleeding.Lyrics suck, as usual.4/5

as a heavy metal album, its EXCELLENT, AMAZING, as a Metallica album, they still have to answer to St.Anger. i am still wary of trusting them once again. Pah. I envy the kids buying this as their first Metallica album.

so, as i sit now listening to this album for the 30th time or so, i have to tell you:if you like Metal, get it. if you like Linkinpark, however, run away.

This is metal as it should be, fast, hard, technical, and indeed, with feelings!(hey, nobody said they should be of the warm, nice kind!)

Soulfly's sixth album is, in my opinion, their best: it consists of 14 tracks (the version i have does, including a cover of Marilyn Manson's The Beautiful People)track list is as follows:

Track list:

"Blood Fire War Hate" - 4:59

"Unleash" - 5:10

"Paranoia" - 5:31

"Warmageddon" - 5:22

"Enemy Ghost" - 3:02

"Rough" - 3:27

"Fall of the Sycophants" - 5:09

"Doom" - 4:58

"For Those About to Rot" - 6:47

"Touching the Void" - 7:25

"Soulfly VI" - 5:20

Bonus tracks:

"Mypath" - 4:43

"Sailing On" (Bad Brains cover) - 4:41

"The Beautiful People" (Marilyn Manson cover) - 4:23

my favorite tracks areWarmageddon, For Those About to Rot

my least favorite? this is the strange thing: i have no least favorite. this is why i gave it 5 out of 5. there is no one sucky song, some songs may remind the listener of Sepultura, some songs might feel ripped out of older Soulfly albums, but there isn't that sucky song that ruins the whole album (Every track out of St. Anger, for example :P)

speaking of which, you do know there's a new Metallica album coming out? this is their final chance. pfft. to think i used to like them more than Megadeth.

..in other news, sorry for not writing, the main reason is time, the other reason is i write too many papers and homeworks and reports these days that the writing.. zeal?.. is all about depleted when i get back home..

also: finished two tests now, i did tell you this, yes? i passed to the third level, about 6 days ago or so, and took the third level exam today. if i pass it will be a year and a half's worth of study finished in 6 months, 10 days from my very first exposure to the swedish language. if i pass, that is :)

oh and why i even bother with such music?what can i say? must be the weather! ;)seriously, one day i just upped and started listening again to metal.. hmm!

1 --- Some kids piss their name in the snow. Fedor can piss his name into concrete2 --- Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Fedor can kill 100 percent of whatever the hell he wants3 --- Fedor counted to infinity - twice4 --- Fedor once visited the Virgin Islands. They are now The Islands5 --- Fedor's calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd; no one fools Fedor6 --- Fedor can speak braille7 --- Fedor's tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried8 --- Fedor was originally cast as the main character in 24, but was replaced by the producers when he managed to kill every terrorist and save the day in 12 minutes and 37 seconds9 --- Fedor died ten years ago, but the Grim Reaper can't get up the courage to tell him10 --- Fedor puts the "laughter" in "manslaughter"11 --- Superman owns a pair of Fedor pajamas12 --- Fedor can slam revolving doors13 --- Fedor sleeps with a night light. Not because Fedor is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Fedor14 --- Once a cobra bit Fedor' leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died15 --- Fedor was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.16 --- Fedor does not hunt because the word hunting implies the possibility of failure. Fedor goes killing17 --- Fedor divides by zero18 --- Fedor's wristwatch has no numbers on it. It just says, "Time to kick ass."19 --- When Fedor gives you the finger, he's telling you how many seconds you have left to live20 --- Fedor is not hung like a horse... horses are hung like Fedor21 --- Giraffes were created when Fedor uppercutted a horse22 --- When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Fedor23 --- Fedor' dog is trained to pick up his own poop because Fedor will not take crap from anyone24 --- Fedor has to maintain a concealed weapon license in all 50 states in order to legally wear pants25 --- Fedor is the only person on the planet that can kick you in the back of the face26 --- When Fedor exercises, the machine gets stronger27 --- Fedor doesn't use pickup lines, he simply says, "Now."28 --- Fedor can build a snowman out of rain29 --- Fedor once had a heart attack; his heart lost30 --- Fedor plays russian roulette with a fully loded revolver... and wins31 --- Fedor can kill two stones with one bird32 --- M.C. Hammer learned the hard way that Fedor can touch this33 --- Fedor once killed a bird by throwing it off a cliff34 --- The best part of waking up is not Folgers in your cup, but knowing that Fedor didn't kill you in your sleep35 --- Fedor once punched a man in the soul36 --- Fedor did that to Michael Jackson's face37 --- The chief export of Fedor is pain38 --- The most honorable way of dying is taking a bullet for Fedor. This amuses Fedor because he is bulletproof39 --- Fedor can tie his shoes with his feet40 --- Fedor once finished "The Song that Never Ends"41 --- The quickest way to a man's heart is with Fedor's fist42 --- It is considered a great accomplishment to go down Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel. Fedor can go up Niagara Falls in a cardboard box43 --- The saddest moment for a child is not when he learns Santa Claus isn't real, it's when he learns Fedor is44 --- We all know the magic word is please. As in the sentence, "Please don't kill me." Too bad Fedor doesn't believe in magic45 --- Fedor can drown a fish46 --- When Fedor enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on, he turns the dark off47 --- Fedor can create a rock so heavy that even he can't lift it. And then he lifts it anyways, just to show you who Fedor is48 --- The reason newborn babies cry is because they know they have just entered a world with Fedor49 --- The grass is always greener on the other side, unless Fedor has been there. In that case the grass is most likely soaked in blood and tears50 --- Fedor was once the F.B.I's chief negotiator. His job involved calling up criminals and saying, "This is Fedor."51 --- Fedor used to beat the crap out of his shadow because it was following to close. It now stands a safe 30 feet behind him52 --- The only time Fedor was wrong was when he thought he had made a mistake53 --- The last digit of pi is Fedor. He is the end of all things54 --- On Neil Armstrong's second step on the moon, he found a note that said, "Fedor was here."55 --- When Fedor breaks the law, the law doesn't heal56 --- A unicorn once kicked Fedor. That is why they no longer exist57 --- Bullets dodge Fedor58 --- Fedor once partook in a pissing contest outside of a bar. His opponent drowned.

Chuck Norris's Reign Of Terror Is Over & Fedor's Has Begun

i did have a photo of Fedor wrestling with God (photoshoped, right?) but i didnt wanna put it since that would be me being insensitive to others' religious views and feelings and all,

Something i am trying to INSTILL in iraqis over here, who for some reason think Stockholm is a street in Karrada Dakhil:

Do unto others as you'd like they do unto you.i dunno why Iraqis here think its so silly to even consider that we are NOT in a musilm country.we are muslims, henceforth wherever we may roam is muslim as well. they shouldnt sell pork or alcohol, and by God they should allow us to proclaim prayer times as high as we freaking want.

believe it or not this is how some people here think. people who've been here for 20 years or more. freaking arm-chair jihadists.

anyway, sorry bout the rant. something is on my mind. have to organize my thoughts and come back later.

Hello all, i hope the move here does not bother you in any way, i thought this new address should be easier to write :)

and if you have links to come-getsome.blogspot.com, no need to adjust them if you do not want to, just wait at the old page a few seconds, then you will automatically be switched over here :)

sorry for the inconvenience.

oh and do tell me please if the new Yamli API is working, something weird is going on :)

should i try incorporating it into the comments?

thanx to Yoda who tipped me about Yamli. great stuff!

oh, about me?

Passed the first big hurdle with flying colors, C level.

will take the next big test in August, on account of there being a month holiday, in which i will be trying to find a summerjob, etc etc :)

waiting for the new iPhone to be released, altho i will NOT buy it immediately for many reasons:

1. waiting for pricing details to come out.2. dont wanna fight and elbow my way into stores to get it. no device is worth that. NONE.3. all pre-orders were already taken, and no other way to get it but fight my way thru along 20'000 maddened swedes.4. the second batch will have pre-orders, and should arrive by end of july, in which pricing and all other details have been settled!

oh and i have been actively promoting linux everywhere! till now i converted 4 people to the light side! :D

try it, just go and ORDER FREE CDs at www.ubuntu.com.free registration, order, wait four weeks. BAM! and you dont even have to install it, just run it off cd to see what its like!

Hey hey people! sorry for the absence, too caught up in study and crap like that to even take a proper breath :)

had an exam today, and last week will have a major one, deciding if i can be promoted to the next study level :) wish me luck!

what else? I am now spending so much time learning how linux actually works, the kinks, the bugs, the limitations, the ABILITIES! spent the better part of last night trying to install Quake3 Arena. since i dont have a linux copy, and i couldnt "find" one, a friend suggested i use the windows version, stripped down, and use a linux core, available free online :)

and that was it for about 5 hours :) either sound didnt work properly, or video, or both, sigh.

finally i used a "frankenstined" core from the good guys at ioquake.org, and bam! all worked! now i have a working quake3 running faster than it ever did on windows!

sorry for the technobabble, i just wanted to share my "achievment" with someone!

The Ten Cheesiest Singers Of All-Time

Using the word "cheesy" to describe someone's singing isn't oftenlooked upon as a compliment. However, this is show-biz and a certainamount of Velveeta is often necessary if you're going to be anentertainer. People come to your shows to see something larger thanlife. If they wanted to watch a bunch of average joes in everydaythreads shyly singing into their armpits, they could attend a Yo LaTengo concert.

But some singers take cheese beyond one of thebasic food groups and turn it into a way of life. Donny Osmond and hisentire oversmiling family have made "corny wholesomeness" an acceptedmedia trend. Donny (not even "Don") makes John Denver seem nutritiousby comparison.

Over the years, there have been plenty of obvious ham and cheese puffs. Anyone who performs a showtune is embeddedwith cheese. So when devising this list of the cheesiest singers, itwas important to choose singers who didn't have to resort to suchover-the-top drama, singers who could've just sang the damn song andbeen done with it. But no--they insisted on a little Feta, a littleProvolone to go along with the act.

10) Billy Joel: BillyJoel could've been a convincing rock 'n' roll guy, but he had too muchof the "drunk uncle at the wedding" in him to tone it down. He's anatural born ham likely to give himself a heart-attack-yack-yack-yackwith all his extra showbiz flourishes. It hasn't done him any good withcritics, but his fans love the extra schmaltz.

9) David Lee Roth: DavidLee Roth is perhaps the only hard rock singer who actually gets it.There are plenty of other hard rock singers, including his eventualreplacement in Van Halen, Sammy Hagar, who are cheesy without wit,without self-knowledge. But DLR knew what he was doing and hereveled in his role as not only the lead singer of a hard rock band,but as the carnival barker eager to sell you whatever you might beinterested in purchasing. Not just a gigolo, but the gigolo.

8) Barry Manilow: Youcan't sing "Mandy" or "Looks Like We Made It" or "Daybreak" or justabout anything in this man's catalog without feeling a little foolish,without breaking into a laugh with friends. Yet we suspend out beliefand pretend it isn't silly, as if somehow beyond the hallmarksentiments rests a universal human truth that at heart we are all madeof blood, water, skin, bone and perpetual corniness.

7) Morrissey: Whether solo or with the Smiths, Morrissey turned every hangnail into a life or death situation. He over-dramatized getting a job.As if somehow applying for employment steals one's soul, rendering themuseless to the rest of humanity and to their true self. He blames thefailures of his love life on what? Getting caught wearing a Wal-Martsmock?

6) David Clayton-Thomas (Blood Sweat And Tears): Yes,he's made us so very happy, he's so GLAD he's come into our lives.Aside from inspiring an entire generation of future grunge rockers(Eddie Vedder, call the main office), DCT with Blood, Sweat and Tearshelped redefine the schmaltz of ‘70s AM radio. While they neverventured into the icky love sentiments of Bread (responsible for "MakeIt With You" and "Baby I'm A Want You"), DCT with just thatvibrato-laden voice of his made everything from "Spinning Wheel" to"And When I Die" sound like it was coming from another planet ofemotionally distraught aliens.

4) Meatloaf:From the sound effects of the motorcycles revving to the play-by-playannouncements from Phil Rizzuto, Meat Loaf albums are jammed withoverwrought details and emotion that suggest he's likely to suffer acoronary before he finds true love. He makes Bruce Springsteen soundrestrained. I'm still not sure what he won't do for love, but I do knowthat he'll tell us with every last melodramatic trill he has left inhis still-beating heart.

3) Cher: Youalways know it's Cher. She's incapable of singing anything withoutsounding overexcited and like she's being beamed in from another era.She vamps, she tramps, she sings like her gaudy, risqué stage outfitscoming to life. When they added the vocoder to her voice for "Believe,"coming from her it was as if it was completely natural.

2) Neil Diamond:He's a living legend and he deserves to be in the Rock n' Roll Hall ofFame as much as the Dave Clark Five, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Eaglesand Billy Joel. But for some reason, Neil's considered tooshowbiz. Yeah, a band that sang about "Me and You and Rain on the Roof"isn't too cutesy, but the guy who gave us "Solitary Man" and "Cracklin'Rosie" is taking things too far. Of course, he is. He's acornball! If you don't act like a complete idiot singing along to "IAm, I Said," then you simply aren't singing it right!

1) Michael Buble: I'vebestowed this honor on Michael because he's the most recent addition toour canon of shameless audience pandering performers--those who givethe people what they want whether they really should or not. FrankSinatra he's not. Dean Martin? Not even close. His pick of tunes makesKenny G look like a music connoisseur. But everything he sings, hesings as if the past five decades never happened. And that is an accomplishment all its own. Cheeze-whiz for everyone!

in the past i didnt really mind, but when he sent me her cover of My Way i just couldn't stay put:

Her voice is really nice and all that, but HOW, just HOW can you butcher Frank's song this way?urgh.

and NO, you CANNOT tell me she did it right, she did it her way etc. When people do stuff their way, they have to.. own it. check for example Stevie Ray Vaughan's cover of Jimi Hendrix' songs Little Wing or Voodoo Chile. i wager they are on youtube also.

pfft.

well, what can i say? everyone's a critic.

AAAARGH.

NO NO NO. YOU DONT GO Golden 3AAAAY. ONLY TINA TURNER IS ALLOWED TO DO THAT. AND FOR A FREAKING REASON.

Well, here we are, another post.. i dont know if i should even be posting this, i mean, i just restored my pc to factory settings for the second time, i still have to install a ton of programs AND do homework..

thank God flock allows me to blog without actually using blogger.com. much easier, lighter, faster, and all that. flock is web-browser :)it is a hybrid from Mozilla Firefox, and Netscape Navigator, it has lots of new accessibility features geared towards quick media access and communication, enough of that, its good enough to stand on its own without me sucking up to it :)

now, what happened is the following: i got a laptop, see?bundled with the laptop is the ever-lovingly crappy Windows Vista, to top the crap i didnt even get one of the "good" Vista editions (Ultimate or Business). i got stuck with Home Basic. pfft.

Few weeks in and Vista is already crashing and freezing, i give it one hard shutdown (take out the power) and BOOM. no more windows. crap crap crap crap.

so naturally i went and installed Ubuntu :) one of the most popular (and stable) linux distributions out there..

problem was, amongst all the myriad combinations of hardware which can cause problems with ubuntu, i had the worst!

now dont go around accusing me of being stupid, not researching my hardware choices first and all, i did exactly that, for Windows AND Linux. however, some recent updates since i came here got my hardware blacklisted and thus my problems..

1- video driver is not recognized, so a generic version is used, and thus decreased capabilities.FIXED. see below

2- ditto for sound driver, meaning there was no sound.FIXED. simple thing really, just change the driver, put in a few configuration commands, restart, and we have SOUND!

3- there was a lingering problem which i had known about for a while, if you dont put a certain fix, your new harddrive dies in under one year because your motherboard likes windows better.FIXED. simple.

back to video: there was nothing i tried that could give me satisfactory results, right about the time i was giving up, i read about the new experimental version of Ubuntu, which was 100% compatible with all my hardware and thus HALLELUJAH!

however, it was still in testing phase, the final version ships out 24th of April. will download it then!

why do i insist on using Ubuntu Linux inspite of all the problems above?

because it is simply better. safer. faster. and for 99% of the time, infinitely easier to install and use than windows.

its completely legally free.

oh and the hundreds of people who provide free detailed technical support online actually know the stuff they are talking about, and they dont put you on hold while they deffer your call to India, like a couple of friends of mine.

a brand new installation takes about 20-25 minutes in which you can continue to use the pc to browse the net and listen to music etc.

i predict, and mark my words: that in the next 5-10 years, Linux will be THE operating system of choice in all major venues all around the world. i just hope i can be on time to catch the wave!

so anyway, after testing it out, i decide i dont want to TEST it out, i want to get the complete end result, so i removed linux completely, and restored my pc to factory settings, which has taken FOUR hours till now, and am still not done. sigh.

anyway, try Linux out, you dont have to install it, just get the cds for free (either download them, or if you dont have a fast connection you can have the genuine Ubuntu cds DELIVERED to your doorstep COMPLETELY FREE anywhere in the world within 2-3 weeks) go to Ubuntu.com for more details :)

you can run Linux from cd, try it out, if you like, install, if not, then just restart and take out the cd, no harm done!

yeah, thats how much i love the thing, i am literally obsessed with it!

--

on the other hand, i dont reckon i told you about the time the Shaman dude from class did the hula dance around me while showering me with minty spittle?

no?

well, i've been suffering from a cold, still am, kind of..Hot spike between my eyes and a running tap in my face, you know the kind :)

so here i am in class, all zonked out on cold medicines and allergy pills, i notice Scott (thats him) trying to say something.. i turn round, tell him sorry man, am out of it so excuse me if i dont focus and all..he says: "Wanna feel a little better?"*uhhhhm.... ulp!*"Yeah, why not?" i answer..

so he says: stand right HERE, takes out a small vial, swallows it, and starts waving his arms around me, and SPRAYING me with what turned out to be menthol extract, in the form of SPIT!

now this is the part where even i am beginning to notice EVERYONE is looking at us, i dont blame them really, it WAS a sight to see!

so i ask him: "what exactly are you doing?"and he goes "just fixing up your aura, it was all bunched up and all that""aha.."

OHHKAY..

it was fun, mind you ;) not everyday you get the chance to be the center of a supernatural (natural??) ritual!

well, as you may know already, i was placed in C group, which is the second highest group. problem is, being in C means everything and nothing at the same time: you can get in C if your Swedish is good, OR you can get in C if you just tell them you've had schooling for over 12 years! so as you can guess, we are a group with mixed linguistic aptitudes!

i swear to God, the first few days were exactly like the show Mind Your Language, in fact, sometimes it still is, the teacher absolutely refuses to talk in English, so we have to figure out what she is trying to say in Swedish, then group the words we caught together, and comprehend the sentences we thought we heard :) so far i've been doing well, the language itself isnt all that different from English, it has the same basic structure, but with some quirks to it, for example:

8:35 PM Thursday, February 07, 2008 07022008166 Hi! *TickertapeTickertape*i'm just taking Lifeblog for a test drive, seeing if i can sync my phone to blogger and start posting on the go and all that :) i mean i can access internet from my phone, but its damn expensive in pre-paid mode, so i figured i'd try this, just post the picture, few KB's worth, and a few words already written so i dont waste much time online :) in other words, am just testing things out here, if it all works, i'll post more often!I dont hate the fish fingers but the fish fingers hate me.damn things nearly came alive while i was learning how to cook them. 2nd time around too. first time i ended with warm Sunflower Oil soup with bits of minced fried fish floating around. not very yummy, at all.i have to go wash the fishy-smelling pan now. with all the cold oily bits stuck to it i bet. sigh.so anyway, c ya later on blogger!

well ho ho ho and a bottle of rum. wait.. that's not how it should go.. erm..anyway:

a new year is upon us and all is well with the world!

..well, at least it hadn't blown up yet, most of it anyway.

a new year. hmm. i have a vague feeling about me now that i have not felt for about.. a year :)so many things done, other undone, yet the world keeps turning round.

on a personal scale, i reckon i achieved most of the goals set up this time last year, as usual still lagging a bit on the harder ones, something i guess is shared by many of you in one way or another :)on a global scale, most of the human race is just as crazy and idiotic as it has ever been, murder, mayhem, madness, normal.

note:yesterday's filth is today's martyr is tomorrow's filth.

am writing this staccato because of the ungodly hour i find myself in, i'm not sure what exactly i should write about, or whether i should be writing at all.

i'll just leave a list of wishes and resolutions, and go sleep.

wishing that:

1. Iraqis acquire the gift of thinking.

2. Iraqis learn to actually BE iraqis, instead of a mob of sunnis, shi'a, arabs, kurds, and all the other labels that escape me at the moment.

3. The Powers of Organized-Religion throughout Islamdom start talking to eachother, and no swearing allowed, either.

4. I learn to be a little less stubborn. only a little mindyou.

5. I get a pair of running shoes. all i have now is boots, boots, and boots. been a while since i got running shoes, 4 years, 5 now, actually.

6. I be a better person overall :)

err..yeah, fat chance on any of the above. so why keep on? let's move on to the resolutions!At least these actually have a chance of happening:

1. I resolve to find a job.

2. I resolve to find a good place to live :)

3. I resolve NOT to have, actually Cause, kids to happen.

4. I resolve to meet a certain someone and punch him square in the smacker. (or knee him repeatedly in the nuts, whichever is more accessible at the time)

5. I resolve to study more, work more, and work OUT more.

6. I resolve to be a better son, husband, and (in some cases) friend. other relatives i am not interested in. waste of perfectly good words even writing about them.

7. I resolve to buy a red sofa.

..er.. and all the rest from last year :) happynewyearauldlangsyneGodblesseveryone!